CS 371 - 4th Hour Project

Line Following Improvements

Our robot now follows the line effectively by maintaining straight movement, and in cases when it deviates from the line, it tries to recover the line by moving backward and forward. The key improvements to the line-following code are:

1. Straight Line Following

The robot moves forward in a straight line with precise motor control. The calibration process ensures that the motors are balanced for straight motion.

2. Detection of Deviation

When the robot detects that it has veered off the line (using the sensors), it triggers the recovery routine. The robot checks its position by analyzing the sensor data.

3. Line Recovery Process

If the robot goes off track, it performs the following steps to recover the line:

• Backward Movement: The robot moves backward for a short distance to give itself space to reorient.
• Forward Movement: The robot moves forward slowly to scan for the line again.
• Sensor Recalibration: The robot uses its sensors to detect the line and adjusts its direction accordingly.

This process continues until the robot successfully detects the line again and resumes following it.

4. Improved Performance

The improvement ensures that the robot is more reliable when it strays from the line, and the backward-forward recovery mechanism allows it to quickly get back on track without extensive deviation.

Challenges We Faced

During the development of the robot, we encountered several challenges related to remote access and setting up the necessary environment for the robot's operation:

• Remote Access Issues: Initially, we had difficulty accessing the robot remotely via a local Wi-Fi network. The connection kept failing, and we were unable to configure it properly.
• Resolution: To resolve the remote access issue, we created a new user on the robot and granted access by acting as a root user. This allowed us to configure the system properly.
• Installing Dependencies: After resolving the remote access issue, we installed all the required Python modules necessary for the robot’s operation.
• Line Following Command: Once the environment was properly set up, we were able to successfully run the line-following command, and the robot started following the line as expected.